I was holding out for the vinyl to be delivered, but I decided to download it anyway and gave it my first listen today at the gym.

Fuck yes, Ulver sounds like Ulver again.

Childhood's End had a few cool tracks, but it didn't have any lasting appeal for me. I'm one of the few who dug Wars of the Roses, but it was a bit lacking in purpose, a bit all over the place. This however, is fucking golden. The whole neoclassical-pseudo-chamber-esque stuff they started with Shadows of the Sun is back. But this time they actually have the orchestra to back it up. Shadows is a contender for my all time favorite album, and so far Messe hasn't dethroned it, but there is tons of potential in this album. The way they mix up their glitchy/electronic and noisy elements with the backend of the orchestra is phenomenal.